Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Why Govt banned only NDTV for Pathankot telecast?
It looks like simple decision of BJP government to ban
transmission and re-transmission of NDTV for a day for disclosing sensitive
information during Pathankot terror attack. But it is not simple as it looks
like. One and only aim of the government
is to teach a lesson to all those who are uttering words against government. If
not, then why ministry of Information and broadcast have punished only NDTV.
 |
| NDTV Ban |
When Pathankot attack took place, not only NDTV but all news
channels were revealing “sensitive” information which they probably get from
sources of Indian Air Force officers (as IAF officers only aware about
demography of the airbase). When rest of the media also did cover the terror
attack and all such reports available in the public domain, the inter-ministerial banned only NDTV. News24’s show Sabsey
Bada Sawaal’s reporter, for example, said in a January 4 broadcast that there
were 22 combat aircraft and helicopters parked on the technical area, just
short of the runway. Two days earlier, Aaj Tak’s morning news broadcast claimed
to provide precise details on the location of the terrorists — “100 metres
inside base” — and reported the presence of combat jets in the nearby technical
area.
A reporter for ABP
News on January 2, again reported that the two terrorists had been cornered in
a residential building short of the air force’s technical area, unable to reach
the area “where the fighters are”, information near-identical to that NDTV
India was to provide two days later.
High-resolution images
of the Pathankot Air Force base, showing the precise locations where aircraft
were parked, were available prior to the attack on Google Maps, while multiple articles referring to aircraft types flown
from there were available on the internet making it highly unlikely the
terrorists would have had to rely on news broadcasts for this kind of
information.
What NDTV reporter said --
Though
NDTV India reporter’s somewhat vague reference to a “weapons depot” is not
explained in the correspondence between the television station and the Ministry
— there are, in fact, several weapons facilities inside the base, though none
immediately proximate to the Airmen’s Billet, where NSG personnel apprehended
the two suspected terrorists were holed up — several channels carried news not
sourced from the official spokesperson.
Exact reason for the ban
The BJP government wants to send tough message to
anti-government voices. Role of
journalist is like opposition but Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and RSS do not feel
existence of such system which will make them accountable. If you will ask question then you will be
banned by showing another reason.
Comments
Post a Comment